Only One Week Left in Peru...

Greetings, friends!
Despite the lack of blog updates, I am in fact still alive! Since I started volunteering after my Inca Trail trek my days have been very full of activity and time to write has been limited, to say the least.
Now I find myself once more at the end of a full and delightful day, with an early start awaiting me tomorrow...so I will keep this brief.

What have I been up to?
Well, I finally completed my Spanish lessons...I clocked approx. 100 hours, though that might be a bit of a stretch if you only count classtime...there were many "field trips" which was usually practicing conversation in a cafe, or browsing a market. Overall, I really enjoyed my classes at Proyecto Peru, and I know I learned a lot! Now I just need to do some studying to solidify what I've learned into my brain! The irregular verbs are the bane of my existence!

As previously mentioned, I've also been volunteering at an orphanage for girls. This was definitely a placement that was outside my comfort zone, but it has been a neat experience. I think it probably deserves a Blog post if it's own, so I won't say too much right now. This week is my last with them...In fact I leave Cusco a week from Tuesday! So crazy how fast time flies!

Last weekend I went with 3 other girls from the school to do a tour of Lake Titticaca, which was really alot of fun! We left late Friday night on a sleeper bus, complete with big comfortable reclining chairs, and arrived in the lakeside town of Puno at about 5am. From there we joined the rest of the tour group and hopped on a boat to visit the Uros' man-made "floating islands" (really incredible!), as well as a much largeer regular sort of island where we climbed some mountains/big hills, dressed in traditional clothing for a fiesta, and lodged with a local family for the night. The next day we visited another island after a bumpy ride on the  choppy early-morning water, climbed another hill, ate fried trout for lunch, and then clambered down over 500 stairs to reach the Harbour to get back on the boat.

It took a couple hours to get back into Puno where we browsed some shops and bummed around in a cafe for a while. At an appropriate hour we visited a delightful restaurant in the Plaza which served me a delicious ceviche (fresh fish marinaded in lime juice, and slathered in some kind of cool, herby sauce...not cooked, btw! I'm getting more adventurous with seafood), and then back to the cafe for hot drinks. I had the opportunity there to Skype my family for the first time since I left at the end of December, which was really nice.

We departed Puno on another night bus, arriving back in Cusco in the week hours of the morning on The Monday.  We tried to sleep once back at home with limited success! That was a rough day for Spanish lessons!

This weekend was much more chill. Yesterday my friend and I slept in after a late (fun) Friday night, and then spent the afternoon haggling in the markets, trying to get some souvenir shopping out of the way. A mouthwatering meal at "Korma Sutra" curry house, and a fruity pisco cocktail at the Pisco Museum with some friends completed the day.

Today we visited some little-known, untouristed ruins about an hours walk from our homestay. It was a gorgeous sunny day, a steep climb, and a refreshing break from the bustling busy city and tourist crowds. Afterwards we made ourselves some lunch (avocados here are just infinity x better than at home....it's not fair), chilled out, and went to the "cine" to watch "unbreakable"...In English, with Spanish subtitles :)

Tomorrow the plan includes volunteering, getting my mullet cut off, (yes, one of the many perils of the pixie cut is growing it out often results in a horrific mullet), doing laundry, and visiting the Inka Museum! Not sure what the rest of the week will hold, but I'm organizing a group to visit some sights in the sacred valley next Saturday! Hopefully I'll have time to put up another post soon!

Adios for now!